Retrieval Failure

• Tulving (1973, 1983)


  Cues aid the retrieval process, so long as they were present at the acquisition stage

  The more similarity between the cues available at acquisition and retrieval, the more likely recall is
• Cues 


  Triggers of information that are encoded at the time of learning and stored with information itself

  Due to interconnected nature of memory, in theory activating the memory of the cue helps activate the memory itself
• Encoding specificity principle 


  The more similarity between the cues, the better the retrieval (Cues don't have to be exact to work)
• Context dependant forgetting 


  The environment during acquisition includes helpful cues for retrieval (Sight, smell, etc)
• Godden and Baddeley (1975) - Deep sea divers study

  19 divers were asked to learn words either in water or on land, then recall them in water or on land

  In two situations, the environmental context of acquisition and recall matched, and two did not

  Findings - accurate recall was 40% lower in non-matching conditions

  The environmental context in acquisition is different to that in recall which leads to retrieval failure
• Godden and Baddeley (1975) - Evaluation

  Strength - reliable as all participants were tested the same

  Weakness - Lacks ecological validity and mundane realism

  Lacks population validity
• State dependant forgetting


  The body during acquisition includes helpful cues for retrieval (emotions, alcohol)
• Carter and Cassidy (1998)

  Antihistamine drugs were given to participants

  The drug had a mild sedative effect making the participants drowsy - creates an internal physiological state different from the ‘normal’ state of being awake and alert

  Participants learnt words and passages either on drugs or sober, then recalled them either on drugs or sober

  Findings - where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, performance was worst

  So when cues are absent there is more forgetting
• Carter and Cassady (1998) - Evaluation

  Strength - Large amount of population drink and do drugs - ecological validity

  Weakness - Participants could have different reactions to the drugs - lack population validity